Search and seizure

Search and seizure, practices engaged in by law enforcement officers in order to gain sufficient evidence to ensure the arrest and conviction of an offender. The latitude allowed police and other law enforcement agents in carrying out searches and seizures varies considerably from country to country. There is considerable variance in the amount of protection given to the individual rights of the accused person.

Most countries require some type of court-authorized warrant for search and seizure to be lawfully carried out, but there is great variance (seewarrant). In South Africa, for example, police may ignore the need for a warrant if delay would defeat what they were trying to accomplish. In France the police have extensive powers of search and seizure in the case of flagrant offense and when a crime is being committed or has just been committed, but in other instances court authorization is required.

Questions of search and seizure have assumed major importance in the United States, for the drafters of the Constitution provided in the Fourth Amendment that “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Since that time, judicial attention has frequently focussed on what actually constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure. The unauthorized confiscation of physical evidence (such as guns, drugs, documents, and stolen property), the interception of oral communications by electronic eavesdropping, and matters observed through an unauthorized invasion of privacy are now embraced by the concept of an illegal search and seizure. If a search is made with the consent of the person searched, even though the consent may have been effected by police deception, the search is deemed reasonable. Any search pursuant to a regularly issued search warrant issued by the judiciary is also considered reasonable. Searches that are incidental to a valid arrest and that are deemed reasonable in scope are permitted without a search warrant; a valid arrest is defined either as one pursuant to a properly issued arrest warrant or as one under circumstances in which the arresting officer actually witnesses the commission of the crime or has probable cause to believe that the person being arrested committed the crime. “Stop and frisk” cases similarly represent an exception to ordinary guarantees. A police officer has the right to detain a person temporarily and conduct a search for weapons on condition that the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is armed and dangerous.

U.S. courts, both state and federal, are required to exclude from criminal proceedings any evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The so-called exclusionary rule, which previously had been applied in federal courts and those of only about half of the states, was made applicable to all U.S. courts by the 1961 Supreme Court ruling in Mapp v. Ohio. The exclusionary rule is not recognized by most other legal systems, but in many countries the trial judge may, at his discretion, deny admission of evidence that was obtained by clearly unlawful methods.